2006 FIFA World Cup

A delightful celebration of the Super Bowl of soccer.

Go down the list of things you would want in a World Cup soccer game. Besides gameplay, graphics and sound, think about the aspects of the World Cup that would make a soccer videogame special. There's the atmosphere and pageantry of the Cup. There are star players that shine on soccer's grandest stage. There are qualifying rounds, the official stadiums of the host country and classic players and teams. In 2006 FIFA World, EA puts a checkmark next to almost every aspect that you would want in a World Cup title, making this year's game the most complete World Cup soccer game to date.

Of course, World Cup games have traditionally lacked depth, usually featuring only 32 national teams in the final stages of the Cup. But other than official kits and players, that was about all you would get for your $50, the same price as the annual FIFA title that featured hundreds of club teams and a variety of game modes. So EA set out to change all that.

2006 FIFA World Cup is a solid soccer game that erases the mistake EA made with the shallow and unpolished FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup, released on the Xbox 360 last November. Not only does the game feature the 32 teams that made the finals in Germany, it also includes the 95 other teams that participated in qualifications but didn't make the final cut, like Turkey. It also boasts an easy, satisfying Ad-Hoc mode for four players, and even a two player Infrastructure option. It's not the smoothest experience, however, as there are definite moments of lag here and there. It also crashed our system a few times, which obviously knocks the whole package a few points.

OK, so now we have a complete World Cup tournament. But what else is there? How about classic teams and players? EA gets a half check here. There are two dozen classic players that can be inserted onto the bench of their respective national teams. There's also the Global Challenge, a new mode that takes you back in time to 40 classic World Cup moments and lets you try to relive the glory or rewrite history. It's a great touch and something that's been missing in soccer games in general. The only real knock here is that you relive classic moments with current players and not classic teams. I don't know about you, but I want to play as Pele.

Unfortunately, it would be near impossible to procure the license of every classic player. There is no ruling body that could legally hand out these licenses, so EA would have had to knock on the door of each of the thousands of classic players out there and have them sign a consent form, and most of them would probably ask for some money, too. Still, it would have been nice to have unnamed players that kind of looked like the old studs, like we've seen in old Madden games with classic teams. The '84 Miami Dolphins with QB#13? There's no reason why we couldn't have that here.